Lord Marrowgar
Raid Preparation An appropriately geared raid for this instance will have spent some time gathering equipment in Trial of the Crusader. You will want your raid members to have a majority of item level 245+ gear for the 25 man version, and 232+ for the 10 man version. It is especially important that your tanks and tank healers be as geared up as possible, because this first encounter in Icecrown Citadel introduces players to the Chill of the Throne. This is an aura that debuffs all players in or around the Citadel, allowing mobs to ignore 20% of an affected player's dodge when hitting them with melee attacks and abilities. Additionally, Lord Marrowgar is a "gear check" boss, in that, if your tanks are not geared enough, his Saber Lash will simply kill them outright. Your healers will need to be at similar levels to keep everyone alive, especially the tanks. As always, your raiders should be prepared to utilize the usual assortment of consumables: flasks/elixirs, buff food, and potions, should all be used in order to have the best chance at success. = Raid Composition = 25 Man 3 tanks - You will need one Main Tank ("MT") to actually keep agro on the boss, and two tanks to stand next to the MT to help soak damage from Saber Lash. 5-7 healers - You will want 2-3 dedicated tank healers, and 2-3 healers assigned to heal the raid from accidental fire damage and to heal the players hit with Bone Spike Graveyard every time Lord Marrowgar uses it. All healers should always watch to cover for each other should one or more of them be Impaled, and all healers should help heal anyone in range during Bone Storm. 15-17 DPS - There are no specific DPS classes or specs required for this fight, but all of them must be adept at swapping targets quickly, and at moving out of the way of Coldflame. A good balance of physical and magical DPS will be best, but the specific composition is quite flexible. A hunter to Misdirect Lord Marrowgar back to the MT after each Bone Storm will be helpful, but isn't required. 10 Man 2 tanks - You will need one Main Tank ("MT") to actually keep agro on the boss, and one tank to stand next to the MT to help soak damage from Saber Lash. 2-3 healers - You will want 2 dedicated tank healers, and possibly a third assigned to heal the raid from accidental fire damage and to heal the players hit with Bone Spike Graveyard. All healers should always watch to cover for each other should one of them be Impaled, and all healers should heal anyone in range during Bone Storm. 5-6 DPS - There are no specific DPS classes or specs required for this fight, but all of them must be adept at swapping targets quickly, and at moving out of the way of Coldflame. A good balance of physical and magical DPS will be best, but the specific composition is quite flexible. A hunter to Misdirect Marrowgar back to the MT after each Bone Storm will be helpful, but isn't required. = Mobs and Abilities = Lord Marrowgar ~5 million HP in 10 man; ~23.7 million HP in 25 man Lord Marrowgar will melee swing for ~12-16k on a properly geared tank. Saber Lash - This is a melee attack that splits 300% of normal melee damage (200% in 10 man) between Lord Marrowgar's current target and its two nearest allies within 5 yards . If this hits anything but 3 well geared tanks, it can do enormous damage, enough to kill any single player in 1 hit. Lord Marrowgar will use this attack approximately every 15-20 seconds, though there is no set cool down on it. This attack also appears to give those it hits a hidden buff which prevents them from being valid targets for Bone Spike Graveyard for ~30 seconds. 10 man: Details 25 man: Details Coldflame - This ability is targeted on a random raid member's location, and travels outward in a line from the edge of Lord Marrowgar's hitbox to that spot, leaving a line of bright blue frost fire. The targeted player and all others in the way must move quickly. Any player who doesn't get out of the way will be hit by the fire, which ticks each second for ~7k frost damage. Because some players will be near the boss, some hits are inevitable, but it's easy to shift a step or two and get out of the fire. Tanks can be targeted by this, and must be careful to move as a group so as to stay stacked for soaking Saber Lash. A new Coldflame will go out every ~5 seconds or so. 10 man: Details 25 man: Details Bone Spike Graveyard - This ability will be used on random players (3 at a time in 25 man, 1 at a time in 10 man) every 20 seconds or so throughout the fight. They will be stuck at the top of a big white spike coming out of the ground, and they will lose 10% of their max health per second for 5 minutes (or until the player or the bone spike is killed). The afflicted players must immediately be healed at the same time all DPS turns to kill the spike and free them. The spikes have ~10k HP in 10 man and ~38k HP in 25 man. Details (This tooltip can be a bit misleading. Reading it, you may get the impression that if no one was in the way, no one would get hit. But in reality, it can't be avoided. 1 random player in 10 man and 3 random players in 25 man get hit by the ability every time regardless or range or position relative to the boss.) Impale - This is the initial hit when a player is put on a Bone Spike, which hits for ~7,500 physical damage. Impaled - This is the debuff that players receive once stuck on a Bone Spike. It ticks for 10% of the player's HP each second, and lasts 6 minutes or until the Bone Spike or player dies. Details Bone Storm - Lord Marrowgar will yell "Bone Storm!" as he uses this ability, and there is also a raid warning that says "Marrowgar falls apart and his bones begin to spin!" Everyone in melee range needs to run out immediately when they see this warning or hear the boss yell. Lord Marrowgar will start to spin around (using the same basic animation as Whirlwind), and move through the room for 20 seconds, randomly targeting and moving toward raid member positions. During these 20 seconds, all players in the room will take damage every 2 seconds from the Bone Storm. The amount of damage per pulse is determined by a given player's proximity to Lord Marrowgar; it hits for less the farther you are from the boss. Being right under him will result in death within a pulse or two, while those all the way across the room will be hit for a very small amount. When each Bone Storm is over, Lord Marrowgar's threat list is wiped. The first Bone Storm happens ~45 seconds into the encounter, and then repeats throughout, with a minute between one Bone Storm ending and the next beginning. Details (This tooltp can be misleading. The boss spins for ~20 seconds, not 1 minute.) = Strategy = This encounter is a single-phase fight, and positioning only changes with small shifts to accommodate the lines of Coldflame. Have your tanks run in together, with the MT slightly ahead to gain agro on Lord Marrowgar. The tanks should move together while positioning the boss against the wall, with the rest of the raid following in behind them. The soaking tank(s) should be certain to stay positioned in front of Lord Marrowgar and very close to, if not on top of, the MT. All melee DPS should be careful to stay more than 5 yards from the MT and to stay behind the boss, so they cannot be hit with Saber Lash. The ranged DPS and healers should spread out behind Lord Marrowgar as well, so that the majority of the Coldflame lines run backwards, and the tanks only have to move for the rare Coldflame that is targeted on one of them. As soon as the MT has a solid threat lead, DPS can attack in full force. Each time Coldflame is cast, those in the way should immediately adjust a few yards one way or another to get out of its path. It ticks for damage every second, so standing still for even a single cast will be very dangerous.Each time Bone Spike Graveyard is cast, all DPS should swap to the nearest spike and kill it before returning to Lord Marrowgar, and the assigned healer(s) should make sure Impaled players don't die if DPS is slow to free them. Be especially careful to quickly free those Impaled right before a Bone Storm; if they are stuck in place and Lord Marrowgar runs over them, they will almost certainly die. If your raid consistently loses players to this ability, it is a good indication that they either need more gear (to DPS and heal harder), faster reaction times, or both. Additionally, healers should be vigilant for the rare instance where a Coldflame takes a path under a player Impaled on a Bone Spike. The Coldflame will still hit that player even though he/she is stuck in the air, and the combined damage is substantial. It will require quick healing and possibly using cooldowns for that player to survive long enough for the Coldflame to travel away. Each time Saber Lash is used, healers should top the tanks up as quickly as possible (while still paying attention to their surroundings). If your tanks are being hit hard enough that they die to the Saber Lash, or if they are getting hit so hard that they die to Lord Marrowgar's next melee swing before they can be healed, they need to gear up a bit more. Having enough health to survive these large hits is necessary for your raid to have a chance at success. When Bone Storm is used, everyone should run away as far as possible so that, if they are targeted by Lord Marrowgar, to minimize the damage they take from the room-wide Bone Storm damage pulses. Lord Marrowgar will target a random player, spin to their location, stop for a moment and release 4 Coldflames at 90 degree angles from each other, and then pick a new target and begin spinning toward them. Everyone should constantly adjust for Lord Marrowgar's new path and position, while taking care to stay out of the fires. Healing will need to be constant throughout so that no one dies. Once the Bone Storm has ended, everyone should resume normal positions, with the DPS waiting for positioning to settle and the MT to regain a threat lead before starting back in on the boss. If possible, having one of your tanks put down an area effect such as Concecrate or Death and Decay underneath Lord Marrowgar to generate threat as the Bone Storm comes to an end will help control this transition. Although this fight is mechanically simple, the damage numbers involved and the reaction times needed make it still quite challenging to pull off. Gear up and concentrate hard to succeed.